Dice versus Die

April 24, 2020

DID YOU KNOW?

What exactly are dice?

Most dice are small cubes; on each of their six sides, they have dots that correspond to the numbers one through six. Many games require players to toss (or roll) dice. Depending on the game, players may add the sum of the numbers on the sides facing up when the dice land, or they may try to get doubles (the same number on both pieces.)

According to this source, dice was once the plural of die, “but in modern standard English dice is both the singular and the plural: ‘throw the dice’ could mean a reference to either one or more than one dice.”

Die is the singular form of dice. It comes from the French word des, a plural word for the same objects. In English, the most common way to make nouns plural is to add an S. If die followed that rule, its plural form would be dies. However, English is full of irregular plurals. Along with wolf, cactus, and appendix, die does not follow the normal pattern. The plural form is dice. If you roll dice, you are rolling two or more game pieces. If you roll a die, you are only using one piece.

One reason is that people refer to dice in pairs so often that they don’t realize it has a separate singular form. but did you know that dice is an acceptable singular and plural form of die? The plural of that device is always dies. Dies is also a form of the verb to die, as in to cease living.

Dice was once the plural of die, “but in modern standard English dice is both the singular and the plural: ‘throw the dice’ could mean a reference to either one or more than one dice.